The following morning (Saturday) saw us get up to a bacon and egg breakfast complete with a cup of coffee. We then set out to see “Cooter” to get the The weather was perfect this weekend as a nice breeze offset the warm temperatures. Sunshine was abundant for sunbathing, and the entire lake seemed accessible, as the surface was smooth for the most part. Sarge Junior secured a last minute campsite at Coulee Playland Park. Site 34, was very nice and right on the lake. We arrived Friday night and established camp. Campers included Dave, Bonnie, Aunt Jean, and myself.
boat loaded and are fishing started. We fished first at the airport where there is a severe drop-off to deeper water and a weedy shoreline that looks to be an excellent ambush area. Word was fish had been hooked here in 20 feet of water. Then we started down toward Steamboat and Bonnie picked up a nice Smallie to two pounds, which hit her #5, firetiger jointed shadrap by rapala and managed to strip all of her line off the reel! I noticed this and told her that she either snagged up or had a fish (we had been contacting weeds quite often). She tightened her drag and reeled in slack to discover her wiggling surprise. We stopped by the boat dock near Steamboat (#1) for potty breaks and such important items. A three year old toddler was getting out of his grandfathers boat right next to us and immediately and cutely asked us questions about our fishing luck and we learned that ole grand dad had hit a nice load of Walleye’s over on Barkers Flat – SCORE! We Roger Dodgered on over to the very spot the gentleman told us to hit and began wind drifting spinners in 12 to 20 feet of water. On the old fish monitor I began to notice big fish holding on the bottom usually around weeds, again just as we had been told. “They are in the weeds”. I had tied on a specifically interesting spinner that included a rubber Squid, a smily blade, two hooks and a couple of beads. We began the process, and in fifteen minutes I hooked a twenty-one inch fish that seemed much bigger initially (the thing was pulling well!). This was a proud moment as this was my first Banks Lake Walleye. The fish was very pretty, nicely marked and fat. In a half-hour we noticed Bonnie fighting something that turned out to be an 18 ½ inch fish that was very nicely marked and healthy. She nailed the fish south of were I hooked up, but we were still “in the weeds” of barkers flats. We pulled up and headed back to camp. I had forgot my insulin in the cooler; Bonnie opted to take a break as she was worn out from catching most of the fish that afternoon.

Saturday night found me holding the keys to the boat so Dave and myself headed out on the lake for some night time action. The moon was full and as our eyes adjusted we could see fairly well, the lake was dead still and actually very peaceful. We began our trolling of crankbaits at the pump station by the damn and worked south along the canyon wall and attempted to lure a strike from an unsuspecting trophy. Seriously we could have picked up anything on this exercise. All of a sudden Dave reports “Fish On”. I begin to reel up and get ready to go into the landing mode and “BAM”. I get hit hard on the retrieve. The fish is going nuts, then a big jump and I knew it was a Smallie and in fact it was a 15 ½ inch fish, that went on to get the hooks stuck in my bag of carrots for comedic purposes. Dave then hit a 16+ fish in eighteen foot of water, but we stopped shortly and went back to camp for the first time all day at around 2:30 am.

Sunday morning we got a late start do to the nighttime action described above. We headed down to Poplar Point and began to bounce spinners on the bottom at depths of 20 to 12 feet. I hooked a Smallmouth bass and a perch, but really have forgotten the details of this day specifically.

Banks was beautiful once again!

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